by Джеффри Лорд
The androids in blue did the thousand and one essential jobs in the city itself. Robots and androids together numbered over half a million, or about five for every human inhabitant of Mak'loh.
The Authority watched over everything. They had been created when the city built its Walls, as a force of trained people, capable of Physical activity, capable of aggression if necessary. They would be too few to use these qualities to endanger the city or themselves. But they would be enough to keep watch for minor accidents and failures and correct them. They would also be able to wake up the whole population of the city in an emergency, turning off the Inward Eyes, reprogramming the robots, retraining the androids, and so on.
At least that was the theory, and with the original thousand-man Authority, it might have worked in practice. Unfortunately, the appeal of the Inward Eye seduced away many members of the Authority. Old age took others. As the birth rate shrank, it became impossible to train enough new members of the Authority to replace those who'd gone. Century by century, the strength of the Authority shrank.
Eventually it shrank to the point where it could no longer do its job properly, and the slow decay of Mak'loh became more rapid. Errors crept into the programming of the robots and the training of the androids. This explained the mad soldier Blade had encountered on the city wall, the simple-minded responses of the Watchers, the deterioration of the gardens. Machines wore out and could no longer be replaced quickly, then could not be replaced at all. The power supply was sometimes erratic. Sometimes an Inward Eye machine would go wild, producing such intense sensations that a person hooked into it would be driven mad.
«At one time, about a century ago, it seemed that things were about to fall apart all at once,» Sela said. «But all of us in the Authority made a tremendous effort and did much of the necessary work.»
«It wasn't enough,» said Blade.
The woman sighed. «This we know. We have known it for fifty years. But we were not strong enough to do any more. We are even weaker now. The only thing we could do to make any real difference would be to declare an emergency and turn off the Inward Eyes. We would have to cast aside all of Hudvom's teachings to do that. I fear the people would not accept that.»
Blade suspected this was an excuse, rather than a reason, to justify the Authority's refusal to grasp the bull by the horns. The real problem was the pleasure the people of Mak'loh took in their carefree, sensual life of Inward Eye and android servants. They would continue to prefer their living death, even as their city fell apart around them. They would probably panic if they were awakened.
Blade didn't blame the Authority for not wanting to grab this bull by the horns. It was a large and ferocious bull. But if they didn't quickly do something drastic, Mak'loh was doomed. It would become a city of the dead who no longer lived, even through the Inward Eye.
«This is true, I fear,» said Sela. «But we of the Authority have given up hope. Even if we had hope, we lack the strength.»
«Perhaps you lack the strength,» said Blade. «But that does not mean that the strength does not exist or cannot be brought to Mak'loh.»
«Will-will your comrades from England help us?» said Sela.
«Why not?» said Blade. «As I have said before, you are our brothers and sisters. From us you can learn how to bring Mak'loh back to life. From you we can learn our history and some of the science we have lost.»
«That seems to be a fair bargain,» said the woman, frowning. «But I cannot make promises for the whole Authority or speak for them all.»
«I cannot do that for my comrades either,» said Blade. «I shall have to see much more of your city before I can even speak to them. Show me Mak'loh, Sela. Take me everywhere in it, tell me everything you know about it, let me speak to the others of the Authority. Conceal nothing.
«When I have learned everything I can, I shall return across the Wall, to where my comrades wait in the Warlands. I shall speak to them and tell them what I have seen. I think they will agree to help your city. If they are not enough to do all that is needed, we will send word to England. That will bring more of our people to help Mak'loh.»
Blade had never bluffed quite so extravagantly, and he wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to carry it off in the face of sharp wits like Sela's. Yet it was certainly his best chance of learning everything about Mak'loh, and perhaps in the end he could learn enough to actually give them some help.
Sela reached out and caught Blade's right hand in both of hers. There were tears in her eyes as she said, in a voice not entirely steady:
«Blade, we shall do what you wish. Mak'loh must live.»
Chapter 15
Sela was as good as her word. She started by getting Blade the black coveralls of the Authority, as well as a combat helmet, boots, and gloves. She got him a new shock rifle and taught him how to use it more effectively. It could be set to either stun or kill, depending on how much power one wanted to use. She also warned Blade that some of the power cells could be unreliable, since the factory that made them was not working very well.
She also showed him the other main weapon kept in Mak'loh-one that was not given to the soldier androids. It was a grenade thrower that looked very much like a large-bore shotgun with a single, stubby barrel. Blade was familiar with similar weapons in Home Dimension, but this one was lighter and much more powerful. That explained why it was not given to the androids. Some time in the dim past, some wise man in the Authority had realized that the androids might not always be completely reliable and therefore should not have weapons as powerful as those of the Masters.
There were only about five hundred of the grenade throwers in Mak'loh, all of them firmly held by the Authority. Each thrower could fire a fist-sized grenade more than five hundred yards, and each grenade could blow a large tree to splinters or reduce a Watcher to scrap metal.
«There is not much ammunition for the throwers,» said Sela apologetically. «The factory for the grenades has not been working for many years.»
Blade sighed. «What were you planning to do if somebody did get in over the Wall and past the Watchers?» he asked irritably. «Spit at them?»
Sela had the grace to blush.
The last thing she gave Blade was not quite a weapon, although it did have warlike uses. It was a metal box to be slung on his belt, with controls and directional antennae that fastened onto his helmet. With a box he could neutralize the Watchers over a wide stretch of the Wall, or order them to concentrate and attack something they might otherwise ignore.
Blade was particularly careful to learn how to use the Watcher control. If necessary, the box would give him an easy passage over the Wall. Blade never minded having a line of retreat open, although he had no intention of retreating from Mak'loh.
After equipping Blade, Sela called up an escort of two soldiers and two workers. Then the two human beings and the four androids climbed into Sela's truck and rolled off on Blade's guided tour of Mak'loh.
They didn't bother with any of the Houses of Peace where most of the people lived. Blade had seen enough of those, and as he said, «When you've seen one House of Peace, you've seen them all.»
What he wanted to see was the factories for weapons and machinery, food and clothing and furniture, robots, and trucks. He wanted to see where the androids were produced and trained for war and work. He wanted to see the sources for power, water, and the protective force fields. He wanted to learn how everything in Mak'loh worked or didn't work.
Sela showed him everything he asked to see, and the other men and women of the Authority were just as cooperative. The three people on duty at the force-field generators even showed him how to operate the master control panel.
«This controls the Dekim Field,» a woman said, pointing at a quartet of dials set around a large switch. «The Dekim Field is radiated by coils set within the outer Wall, to give it strength to resist any explosions or sharp blows.»
That explained why the Wall had stood firm against the exploding gunpowder, but not a
gainst the slow assaults of living plants. Blade couldn't help wondering what would happen if the Dekim Field were turned off.
There was also the Entesh Field, which produced the golden shimmering above the Wall. It gave warning of intruders who reached the top and summoned the Watchers to deal with them. Once it had also been strong enough to keep out storms like the one that had covered Blade's and Twana's escape from the robots.
«That must have been quite a long time ago,» said Blade drily.
«It was,» Sela said.
Now the Entesh Field could only act as a sort of burglar alarm. Even then it depended heavily on the reliability of the Watchers-which was steadily deteriorating.
Finally, there was the Hoak Field, which produced the screen of blindness along the top of the Wall. That alone at times had been enough to keep Mak'loh safe from intruders from the Warlands outside.
«Anyone who was willing to feel his way along for another twenty-five feet could pass safely through the Hoak Field,» said one of the men. «But the Warlanders had degenerated into superstitious barbarians, who would never be capable of such a thing.»
Blade wondered if anybody in Mak'loh had ever seen the Shoba's men in action. No one he'd talked to had mentioned them, so he doubted it. The Shoba's trained soldiers might well be superstitious, but they were not barbarians, any more than the legions of Rome bad been. Sooner or later, if the Shoba's army held together, it would be making a serious attempt on the Wall.
The main power plant of the city impressed Blade even more than the force-field generators. For one thing, the Authority people who ran the power plant and guarded it seemed to have escaped some of the apathy that had swallowed up their comrades. They were brisk, alert, and efficient. They also had several hundred picked android soldiers under their command. The Power Guard was the most highly trained fighting force Blade had seen in Mak'loh. «They must be the best,» the woman in charge of their training said with a shrug. «How can they be otherwise? If the power dies, so does Mak'loh.»
The power plant itself operated by the direct conversion of mass into energy. Theoretically, it could use any form of mass, including sewage. In practice it was simpler to use heavy metals extruded into fine wire and fed into the converter.
Because of its abundance in this Dimension, gold was the favorite heavy metal. Blade saw the gold that was currently providing the power for the whole city-a bar that he could lift in one hand. He also saw the gold stored away for future needs-room after room of gold bars, stacked higher than a man. This mass of glittering metal would outweigh the combined gold reserves of every Home Dimension nation combined. At the present rate of consumption, Mak'loh had power for at least a thousand years. Ironic, when the city and everybody in it would be dead in less than half that time.
So it went, everywhere Blade traveled in Mak'loh. The city was a breathtaking and contradictory mixture of dazzling genius and creeping decay, with the decay slowly winning.
After a week of touring the city, Sela taught Blade how to use one of the Authority's flyers. The gravity-control fields in the Houses of Peace required heavy generators and a great deal of power. They could not be used in small flying machines. So the flyer was no more than a platform with controls slung between two ducted fans. It was easy to control, and the ones in service were all very carefully maintained. That was good news to Blade. As he put it:
«A thousand-foot fall can ruin a man's whole day.»
Blade enjoyed the leisurely flights across the gardens, above the tops of Mak'loh's highest towers, even out to the Wall. There was no way to pass beyond the Wall, since the Hoak Field rose higher than the flyers could climb, and no man could control one of them blind. That did not worry Blade. He knew he had the measure of all Mak'loh's defenses, and none of them could prevent him from going where he wanted, when he wanted. This was vital to a plan that was rapidly taking shape in his mind.
It was a particularly lovely day, flawlessly clear from the moment the eastern sky began to turn pink with dawn. Blade and Sela were up early, bathing, breakfasting, and ordering the androids to prepare their flyer for the day's traveling.
They walked out to the landing platform as the sun crept over the Wall. Overhead the sky was turning the pale blue that promised a scorching hot day. The android servant stowed away their lunch under the seat of the flyer, then climbed into the seat and strapped itself in.
Sela shook her head. «No, you will not be needed today.»
«Yes, Master,» said the android. It unstrapped itself and vanished down the stairs. Sela turned to Blade and smiled.
«We are going farther than before today, into the western forests close to the Wall. It is so wild there that no one ever comes near it. Working androids do not know what to do there, so they are more of a nuisance than a help.»
«I see,» said Blade. By now he'd got used to the worker androids so they hardly seemed more than pieces of furniture. He was still happy to be free of them whenever possible.
Blade lifted the flyer off the platform, took it up above the highest tower of the city, and headed west. He flew slowly, his helmet off and his coveralls zipped open halfway down his chest. He savored the sunshine, the breeze, the gentle whirr of the fans, and the view below. From this high there was nothing to show that Mak'loh was a dying city, and all the colors of its towers blazed in the sunlight.
The city crept past below them; then came the inner wall and the gardens. They were green and luxuriant-too much so, with water plants choking streams, and ponds and creepers twining around trees. This was good land though-fertile and well-watered. With skilled cultivation, it could feed twice as many people as Mak'loh held now, and in time ….
No, he wouldn't let his mind spin fantasies of what could only lie in the distant future. There was little chance of Mak'loh turning back to the land for its food, and, perhaps there would be no need to. Blade hoped so. The people of the city would have to do many things they were not doing now in order to survive, but they should not have to become sweating peasants. Not if his plan worked and the people of Mak'loh showed at least a little intelligence!
Half an hour later Blade sent the flyer spiraling down to a landing on the edge of the forest along the western Wall. He couldn't land in the forest itself without the risk of impaling the flyer on a treetop.
The flyer touched down, and the fans whispered into silence. Blade and Sela climbed down to the ground, hoisted their gear, and strode into the forest.
They walked a mile through the hot, windless silence under the trees, brushing off insects and rapidly working up a sweat. At last they broke out of the trees onto the bank of a small stream. It flowed down a hillside between two grassy banks, clear and cold, so fast that the water plants hadn't been able to choke it. Flowering bushes like lilacs dotted the hillside, rising twelve and fifteen feet, covering the grass with fallen yellow blossoms and filling the air with a delicate sweet scent. It was an absolutely irresistible place for a picnic.
Blade dropped the gear, while Sela sat down and pulled off her boots. She lay back on the grass, wiggling her toes, hair spread out around her head, the picture of absolute contentment. Suddenly she sat up and began undoing her coveralls. «Blade, I think I'll take a bath in the stream before we eat. I feel like I've been cooked along with the mush in one of the food factory's raw material vats.»
«Can you swim?» Blade had to ask. He'd never seen Sela enter the water, or indeed do anything without at least her coverall and boots on. He'd always been aware of the body under those coveralls, but he'd never seen it.
Before he could complete the thought, Sela's coveralls were lying on the grass beside her boots. She stood up, wearing a sort of padded green body stocking. Her figure hardly needed padding. Blade assumed it was some sort of protective garment, like the bulletproof vests worn by the android soldiers. She reached around behind her and tried to undo the neck of the vest. Her fingers waved desperately an inch short of the seal.
She laughed in amused frustrati
on. «This is the first time in years I've tried to take off one of these things without an android to help me. Could you help me, Blade?»
Blade stepped over behind Sela and gently undid the neck of the vest. Even more gently he undid the seam down her back, until he could see an expanse of creamy skin stretching all the way down to the cleft between her buttocks. A second glance told him that skin was lightly freckled. He let his hands rest on the back of her neck for a moment. Then he pushed the vest slowly down off her shoulders. She stood without moving or even breathing hard as it slipped down to her waist. Then she turned around.
Against the freckled whiteness of her breasts, her large nipples were startlingly dark. Blade raised his hands, ran them down her neck and over her shoulders to her breasts, brushed his thumbs lightly across the nipples, felt them harden and rise. Sela still did not move, but her breasts seemed to take on a life of their own as her breathing quickened.
It had been almost inevitable that sooner or later they would come together like this. Blade had been too aware of Sela's beauty not to be showing interest. Sela was experienced enough to notice those signs of interest. To be sure, she hadn't had an actual Physical sex experience in more than fifty years. Those of the Authority had many more waking hours free of the Inward Eye, but they also had much more work to do. Besides, they seldom found anyone but another member of the Authority a congenial bed partner.
Sela continued to stand motionless while Blade worked on her with both his lips and his hands. His lips crept up and down her body from throat to navel, lingering the longest on her breasts, drawing her nipples out, making the skin around them flush. His hands slowly shoved the vest down past her waist, her hips, her thighs, until it slid on its own down her legs to fall in a pile at her feet. She still stood motionless as Blade stepped back from her long enough to strip off his own coverall. He wore nothing under it but a padded loinguard, and then nothing at all.